Colin Cowherd Podcast - Surprise Final Four, Rodgers Stalemate, Lamar Chaos, w/ Middlekauff

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visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net West Virginia. Hi. Everybody, welcome in. In about ten minutes, I'm gonna bring in John Middlecoff, former NFL scout Philadelphia Eagles. We got some nfls, We're gonna talk tournament, We're going to talk some baseball. Just gonna do about forty minutes of guys sitting around talking sports. So years ago, when I was very, very fortunate and got a job out of college in Las Vegas working for a baseball team, the Las Vegas Stars.

So I did that for a couple of years, sales, couple innings of play by play, and then I transitioned into working for a local NBC affiliate, KVBC Valley Broadcasting Company. Late Jim Rodgers was willing to hire me. I was a weekend sports guy and then to the sports director. And during that one of the things that I'm from the Pacific Northwest, as many of you know, that was really cool for me is sports books. I'd never been to a sports book. I didn't I'd never been to Vegas,

so I hung out in sportsbooks a lot. I thought there were the coolest things in the world. I would finish my eleven o'clock sportscast on a Friday during the football season, I would go to Palace Station on Sahara, not far from my station in North Las Vegas, and I would place bets college football bets, have a ninety nine cent breakfast, meet some guys, and then I would

go home, sleep in back. Then you'd wake up in the morning and you know, the Florida State Seminoles will be feates and the Miami Hurricanes at nine in the morning. Now they put all the really good college football games mostly in the late afternoon and night. But I loved sports books and I love the guys that run them, and it was very obvious there were two things where the books made a killing and they were completely electric, NFL Sundays and March Madness. And this past year the

NFL ratings were up. And what is significant about that fifty four quarterbacks or close played. Fifty four different quarterbacks played. So the ratings shouldn't be great, right, the stars drive any sport, but the ratings were up, and the ratings are up because of gambling, the rollout of gambling in this kind tree and which I'm a proponent of and

have been forever. So the other thing that was wild to see, so when I moved to Vegas out of college, the running Robbinals, Jerry Tarkanian, Larry Johnson and Stacey Augman, Anderson Hunt, Moses Scurry, Greg Anthony, you know, I got to cover that team. It was wild. But I would hang out in these sports books like everybody else, eating cheap food, drinking beer. March Madness in the NFL and other sports, certainly you'd have action, but those moved the

needle and they still do. So the March Madness ratings have been really strong, you know. And people tend to have opinions that work for their agenda. If you hate the NBA, you're like, see the basketball is better. No, it's not. There's no reason college basketball is getting these ratings. Nobody knows any of the players. I mean, if you're a Miami Hurricane fan, you'd do. But San Diego's State

fans don't know. Again, if you followed college basketball twenty years ago, the Stars, the Patrick Ewings twenty five years ago, Christian Latner's they came back for a third or fourth year. Now, if you go to a street in Smith and look at their All American team, it's like four freshmen that they were in high school the year before. It's a very transitional sport, very transactional. And then you throw the portal into it. Christ half the league half that. There's

three hundred and sixty Division one programs. Five kids per team are transferring. It is just a non stop merry go round of one and done players in and out of universities, in programs. There's no real emotional visceral connection most casual fans to the teams. You know the coach, maybe you know the brand of Kansas or er Accuse,

you know all the players. And we don't watch soccer just because a soccer, the soccer that gets the most views, has the biggest star, the biggest brands, English Premier League, and so there's no reason for college basketball. You don't watch just for passion. Little League World Series has passion. It doesn't get huge ratings. A lot of things have passion. The College Baseball World Series has passion, it doesn't get huge ratings. We bet on two things in America, the

NFL and March Madness. And I mean, I'm watching this weekend. Know any of these Creton players don't follow Creton basketball. You can pretend you do. You don't. People within one hundred miles of that school unless they went there, they don't know who plays for Creton. So I think it's great. But it shows you the importance of that connection to betting on sports, and we're really seeing it. I think it's been a lot of fun, but I'm not gonna lie.

A big part of it is you're not churning off games, even lobsided games, because you want to see if you hit the over the under of the line. It's the power if you really look at the people that have left sort of traditional linear TV. If you look at cord cutting and cable sports rating should not be going up. You can make a lot of reasons why people are not watching stuff. College basketball, NFL, the big winners, the

big winners in the legalization of sports betting. Let's bring in John Middlecoff my Buddy three and Out podcast at the volume. With the NFL season over all, eyes in the sporting world turned everything from the NBA to college hoops to the NHL. Plenty of games to watch are even better, plenty of games to get out of the house and actually go to. That's why the best way to get your hands on tickets when you want to go to one of these games, check out game Time,

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game Time Today last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Here was my main Man Colin Coward and Sunday afternoon, March twenty six, we have just you know, Kentucky, UCLA, North Carolina and Duke in the final four, just as everyone expected. It is funny Florida, Atlantic, Miami and San Diego State. It My first takeaway is college football over the last twenty years has largely been dominated by warm weather schools.

There's more athletes. We grew up with Washington, Nebraska, Penn State, Michigan, and then we've seen it slowly become the SEC and your Oklahoma's for a brief run, Texas and USC had dynasties. Now in basketball non traditional the SEC and the Big twelve warm mother conferences and now you got a San Diego State school and Miami and Laranaga has been a

great coach for a long time. But it does feel like a little bit like they just have more great athletes either to choose from, or they convinced northern kids on a recruiting trip. You don't have to deal with northern weather, which is I think you know that's a very alluring thing if you grow up. I lived in Connecticut for ten years. He just couldn't wait to get down in Naples or West or Carba whenever you got

a weekend. Well, I mean one thing you know in college basketball, which is so it's different than college football in the sense that these guys, if you play for a couple of years, let's just say it at Kansas and you're rotational guy, but you're never going to start. And then you transfer to a San Diego State, to a UNLV you know, to uh yeah, one of the smaller power fives, you can have a huge impact immediately.

I remember when I got hired at Fresno State, I lived with a buddy that had played for the basketball team, So we had some of the players that were on the team move us in and they were both Power five transfers to Fresno State, but they had to sit out. Remember as that rule changed, Yes, it's completely changed. It's

impact the NCAA tournament. It obviously has an impact in football, but it immediately impacts basketball that next year because some of these star players on these smaller teams dominate when it matters the most. Yeah, and you know, I mean Texas loss. But it does help to have upper classmen. I mean, next year, Duke and Kentucky have unbelievable recruiting classes. So they'll be the two most talented teams, but they're going to be a bunch of eighteen year olds, and

I think you can win. I think Jay Billis told me this about a week ago. You go win a lot of games in the tournament. It's hard to win five or six games with like freshman yea. You know, there's a lot of situational basketball. I mean, good God, in the last you know, two weeks, how many games have been decided by just situational basketball, A big basket, a big time out, you come out. I mean, this stuff is talents obviously a part of it. But you know,

Miami last year was pretty good. This year they're really good. And this game, I felt Texas was going to win this thing for most of the game, and then about seven minutes left, all of a sudden, you look up and here comes Miami. Some experience, big shots, good stops. So I don't know. I mean, it's not going to do great for TV ratings, but I've had the last couple of years after one was canceled. The last couple of years, I think March Madness has been absolutely great.

One thing I've noticed I've talked about this on my podcast is and it doesn't necessarily show in the Final four. But these SEC basketball teams, you know, it used to just be Kentucky used to carry the conference or Florida. Now it's all the teams. You know, Arkansas is a powerhouse. They're paying football money and it you know, you're a

Pack twelve guy, ad Hard, I am too. Clearly the conference when they made their television deal, they wanted to encompass all the sports, the SEC, the Big Ten, all in football. You make huge money and it all trickles down. And now they're paying basketball coaches five six million dollars in the SEC. Georgia paid Tom Crean years ago, like six million dollars, you know, like seventy years ago. They

really are trying. You look at the baseball college baseball, I think like seven of the top ten teams or SEC, the golf team Flight Private, it's all because of football. And you know, now with you know, UCLA and USC going to the Big Ten, I think that's really going to have ramifications on the basketball programs because they're just gonna have way more money to pay the coaches. Well, and I also think I've said this I grew up.

We grew up with the PAC twelve, right, and but I can acknowledge I think the coaching right now in the PAC twelve is excellent. I think it's really strong, and I think there's some good teams. I think USC has a chance next year to be really good. But we have to be honest. The West Coast has more pro sports teams, the Big twelve and the SEC. If you look at those geographical footprints, there's not a lot

of pro teams right. So, I mean, you know, in Los Angeles it's hard to get sixty thousand people to a UCLA football game because the following day that the Chiefs are playing the Chargers in LA or it's the Rams and the Niners, and guys like you and I have to we have to tell our girlfriends or our wives, Okay, what you get one night and the other is, you know, Sundays the bigger sports. So I'm not going to tell my wife I'm gonna be in front of a TV

for two straight days, even though I'm a sportscaster. So I just think I think it's you don't have the passion here, you don't get the drive. I think in the South and in Big twelve territory. Big twelve is a great basketball conference. SEC is now becoming a roading a basketball conference, great football conference. There is more passion, It matters a lot more. It means more. There's fewer options for sports. And I mean, listen, it's just you go to Atlanta, that at the big city in the South.

I mean it's just all SEC grats, Yea, everywhere you can go, they're SEC hats. You know the last time Gonzaga beat UCLA that they ran out of gas of Baylor happened again in Connecticut. Clue, those two teams were better.

I know you know him well and before we dive into football, just Mark Few, do you think there ever comes a time you just I know, geographically the way he lives his life is pretty perfect up there, but just maybe Bill self has physical issues, has step away one of these programs called does he get to a point where he just can't refuse or do you see him just stand there and ride it out? Oh he'll stay. Yeah,

he's got a great place. South Hills of Spokane is beautiful, kind of looks over you know, the timber and sunsets. And he also has a couple of boosters with private jets, he never has to fly commercial for any of the recruiting. And also he can do it his way. He can get some three star recruits and not get pushed back on the message boards. Like listen, Yukon right now is the best team in the tournament. So it was funny.

I was texting him and I told him that. I said, man, they're they're good, They're a blizzard, They're they're just they're just rolling past people. So and I also think, um, you know he's gotten a guy like Jalen Suggs or Chet Holmgren. Um, there'll be another year. Vell eventually land a kid that is even a higher end player than that, and you know they'll they'll find eventually they're Anthony Davis. But you know, I think the way Mark looks at it because UCLA has made a run at him, Oregon

made a run at him. It's just a good life. And you know a theory IOH was subscribed to, don't try to get happier than happy. He's just a really happy guy there. I mean, he's disappointed as heck today, but he's done a great job. He really loves He can hide in Spokane. He can really go hide at home, great wife, he's dialed in there. I don't see him ever leaving. Yeah, I mean one guy that can't hide,

Aaron Rodgers. This chet thing, you know, it felt, I don't know why, it did, like it was just going to happen when free agency and then he went on McAfee, would all just kind of come to fruition. And that clearly is not the case. Now nothing is actually happening right now. Right there's no practice, there's no OTAs, nothing

really happens till after the draft. And really it feels like the timeline right day one of the draft, because if they want that thirteenth pick, and if the Jets are hesitant, because both of them feel like they're in a little bit of a staring contest. If you're the Jets, I'm not going to give you that thirteenth pick till the last hour, when, in my opinion, I would capitulate and give you the thirteenth pick, but that'd probably be it.

Give you pick thirteen, maybe some conditional next year, but that's it. And maybe they're trying to give some package of like a two and a two next year or something. But that's where it feels like we might have another thirty days of this before the draft. We're it's just kind of sitting here looking at each other. That would feels like you and I also think. I mean green Bay has got their quarterback at practice ready to go. They can stall all they want. They don't need a quarterback.

He's in the building. So their takeaway is we want two first, we're gonna get a tight end and a receiver, two big needs that could go the rush of the draft. After that could mostly be defense. They're going to be stubborn. And you know, it's like I've been in enough contract negotiations in my career, probably twelve where sometimes I've had a little average, sometimes I haven't, but it usually wraps

up pretty quickly because we both want it done. I do think, and maybe it's only ten to fifteen percent of it. I think Green Bay is going to say, you have been put screwing around with us for three years, so welcome to your party. And so I think a little bit of this because green Bay, come on, they say what you want. But I mean I would give up a first for Aaron Rodgers. I wouldn't give up much after that. Maybe a conditional third. They can't be

that far apart John, they can't. I mean, nobody thinks he's worth two wants at this point because nobody knows if he's going to play for two years. He just said chance he was going to retire three weeks ago.

So honestly, that kind of hurts the Packers in the sense that this whole situation is just kind of a sad ending to a weird situation these last couple of years because he had so much individual success win those MVPs and those two flameouts are just I mean, they're pretty historic losses, both at home, the Niners game, I mean the Niners in score an offensive touchdown, and that

Tampa game loss. I mean, those are just It's just been a bizarre way to end a career that you had so much problem and had high highs, but they were mainly in the regular season. Well also not everybody. I mean, you were in the scouting game. You obviously were good at it, you loved it. Some guys are lifers. You looked at it and thought, probably hard to make money here. I don't like the travel, you know, I'm guessing I didn't like it. I am more addicted, and

so I think I've had more success doing this. What I've been part of as a podcaster comes more naturally to me. I can control more that I saw the addiction Howie Rosman and Andy Reid and bread Beach, and I went, I don't know if I love it as much as those guys do, and if I'm gonna be in the industry and want to go, I'm gonna get capped. And it's hard to do that job if you're not an addict. Well, it really is. It's why Tom Andy Belichiack, I mean, Saban, the best are Mark Few, Mick Cronin.

I mean, these guys are addicted to the game. Listen when I got when I got out of college, John I Gotta, I was very fortunate. I got a triple A baseball play by play job. So I did sales in an inning of play by play, which became two winnings, and I travel a little bit, but I thought that's what I wanted to do. And then about year three I worked with um you know, like Ken Korak is the voice of the A's and it has been forever, okay, Yeah, And there were guys like that in the league and guys.

You started meeting these guys and you're like, they loved baseball, John Miller, John Miller loved baseball, and I liked baseball, but I liked football, and so and this this circles back to Aaron Rodgers. I think he really likes football, but he's not UM. I don't think he UM. I don't think he's addicted to it. And so what's happening is all the great young quarterbacks are addicting. You know, they're ascending and they love it. And he likes it.

And you see his offseason workouts last year, I just didn't think he played particularly well. So you know, it's like in my whole career, I've seen guys, I'm pretty addicted to this job. It's hard to stay at the top of anything. You can do it on some natural talent. But as you age, if you're not addicted like Aaron, you start eroding really fast. Like like I thought Cam liked football. He eroded really fast. Big Ben. His off seasons were legendarily soft right beers and as Jay Glazer said,

beers and camping with the kids right like. So, I think you age really fast in athletics if you're not addicted to it. Lebron's addicted to it. He's aging gracefully. And that's why when you look at the young quarterbacks like the Mahomes, Josh Allen contract situations boom handled Trevor Lawrence, that thing will be handled quick. Herbert will get some

Joe Burrow. It'll just be smooth. And this Lamar situation last week, my theory is this, these gms on these teams are getting calls from someone they don't know and they don't trust. They do behind the scene deals all the time with the Rosenhouses and the Tom Connins, but the level of trust they've been working for decades. You're calling me asking about trades. I don't know you. I'm not going to lose my team's second round draft pick

over tampering or with something. And this situation has jumped to shark now and part of it is on Lamar and I'm not super pro agent on Anti If Richard Sherman with the Niners handled his contract himself and it was fine, but in this situation, they got a problem on their Lamar's camp like that. They need to kind of rein this in if they want to get out

of there, if they want this money. You can't operate trying to get one hundred and fifty two hundred million dollars with this level of direction because it's not going well well if you. When I watched the Air movie with Michael Jordan, one of the things Michael and his mom are really good at is making these big decisions. David Falk, Phil Knight, Sonny Vaccaro, Dean Smith, Michael's mom

and Michael were really good big decision makers. Lebron By and large chose pat Riley and d Wade and Eric Spoelstra. Then the Lakers brand is enormously helped his business. But some athletes are gifted. I'll give you Carmelo Anthony. So when Carmelo was with the Denver Nuggets, he demanded a trade to the Knicks. It actually screwed him. He made it so public that the Knicks were trapped, had to give up a ton to get him. He gets to New York, they don't have anything right, He's the ten

million dollars chandelier in the empty mansion. And so he Carmelo didn't surround himself with good people that should have said don't don't do this. So Lamar's kind of the Classic. He just he doesn't have the right people around him to give him guidance. By the way, most people don't. I didn't get twenty four, Like I get it. Michael was so great. The league made sure, probably you get the right people, right. Yeah, there's a lot of greatness there.

Or Lebron James, like the NBA made sure, let's steer you to the right to the right people, right. But I feel like lamar yea, all of us need guidance, especially at twenty four to twenty five. I just don't think he has the right people around him. Well. I saw Richard Sherman sat on his podcast on the volume check that one out to Calvin Johnson about these guaranteed contracts and for most players, because the guaranteed number kind of hovers between you know, let's just say forty to

sixty million. But these quarterbacks, even low ones, are one, twenty one, one fifty. You basically play out your entire contract always because the way it works on the cap, they can never cutch it. It took Matt Ryan until he's like thirty eight years old to finally get cut. Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, they have played their entire time on that contract that we said was terrible like four

years ago. So if you just sign the two and twenty million dollar contract with one hundred and forty five guaranteed, the likelihood you're gonna see ninety percent of that is really really high. Just Derek Carr played out his entire contract on the Raiders until they kind of messed with it last year to kind of do an extension and then boom, he gets another eighty million dollars. So I mean,

as a quarterback, you are in the driver's seat. So they're arguing it feels like over kind of nominal stuff in the big picture of what he's ultimately gonna make. Yeah, and again, if he had it's a really good team of managers around him, he'd get it. You can't ask athletes to be great athletes and like financial wizards. I mean, look at I've negotiated twelve contracts or been part of twelve negotiations. I have great people around me, I would

get taken to the cleaners. I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a litigator, So it's like I just I just feel like and also I've said this before. I said it last week Kawhi Leonard and Lamar have this sort of unorthodox personality. They're not trusting. So Kawhi uses you know, as Dennis uncle Dennis, right, which is I'm and then you know m Lamar used his mom. Well again, it's not the end of the world, but I think it comes down to both are not trusting. Lamar was overlooked

by a lot of people. He watched himselves in high school and college be dominant, and yet he falls. He didn't trust people. Kawhi Leonard was overlooked by a lot of schools, even though you know he was dominating guys in an early age. And so you know, they come into the sport they're kind of unique personalities. They're non trusting, they take an unorthodox agent stance or route. It's I've said this before about Kawhi. I'd love to have him

on my team San Antonio Toronto. When the culture is built, you can't build around him. He walks into the facility. I've been told three forty five I'm not playing tonight, so he can't be your one, and I you know, I listen. I'm rooting for Lamar to sign because he makes the league better. He's a fascinating player, and I think he's a really good guy. But you know, man management has an advantage if you don't have equally strong

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Kansas under an agreement with Kansas dar Casino LLLC. Gambling Problem Call one eight hundred Gambler or visit FanDuel dot com, slash RG Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia one eight hundred next step or text next step to five three three four two Arizona one eight at eight seventy eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org, slash chat Connecticut one eight hundred nine with it Indiana one eight hundred five to two forty

seven hundred. Visit KAS gambling heelp dot com Kansas one eight seven seven seven seven oh stop Louisiana called one eight hundred and three two seven fifty fifty or visit

WWWMA Underscore Helpline dot org slash problem Gambling. Visit www dot MD Gambling Help dot org Maryland one eight seven seven eight Hope New York or text Hope New York four six seven three six nine New York one eight hundred five to two forty seven hundred Wyoming, or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net West Virginia. You think you know, there's been a lot of talk Frank's history with bigger quarterbacks in Carolina. They make the

trade obviously. Last week Tepper's yeah, I mean it's his team, but he's going to all these pro days. He's right by you know, I heard you say, you know, just kind of a way to get make sure we're bring a huge contingency here. See how he handles himself. Clearly, CJ's a pretty high level guy. You do the same with Bryce. Do you think they already know who they're going to take, because that's what it feels like, they're gonna take CJ. Strout. But you know this, I've been

in these meetings. There's still a lot of debate going on, especially when the other guy. And Bryce is a really high character guy at the highest level also and has had so much success. So I could see the conversations, you know, running right up for the next three or

four weeks up until the draft. Well. I talked to an NFL GM this week who told me Will Levis has the fewest there's three or four key traits that you have to have, and that will Levis had the weakest of the four because he was reckless accuracy issues. This GM said, of the top four quarterbacks, he has the fewest traits. You really want so take will Levis out. So it comes down to the final three. I think the size fairer knot is something as a number one pick,

I mean Kainer was a little small. He didn't want to get hit anymore. Baker was a little small Manzelle was a little small. Two was a little small. We got a history here. You take a small guy up top the hits land differently. So I think there are concerns about Bryce Young. I think they wanted to see CJ. Stroud. They wanted to meet him and look him in the eye, and they think that CJ. Stroud has some of Bryce Young's accuracy and experience, and they kind of just wanted

to see what's he like as a kid. Because I think they look at CJ. Stroud and say, well, big school with NFL receivers, really good coach, you get hard coached, very accurate, very composed, doesn't make a lot of mistakes. CJ didn't have a lot of big interception games. I think he had one or two big bad games in

bad weather in the Big ten. So my guess would be they wanted to go CJ and say, hey, does he have enough of the Bryce Young kind of cool confidence, composure, and if he does, we get three and a half more inches and twenty more pounds. Because if you look at their college stats, there are some similarity as an accuracy of delivering the football. And remember Frank Reich's history, He's a polisher. He takes guys that can be a little while filed Anthony Richardson, Yeah, and polishes them up.

But I don't think Anthony Richardson, like he didn't feel like a one year I mean, he could be a two year build, and I don't think Frank wants to wait two years to have a guy ready to play at a high level. Yeah, I think the outlier, and Josh Allen has really kind of skewed everything, But most of these guys tend to be in the history of the game more Malik Willis than Josh Allen. I went to a spring training game yesterday and it was the Dodgers against the Royals, and it's Dustin May the Dodgers.

You know, the big redhead kid who throws ninety eight six five, Yes, and then well he's on the probably the eighteenth hole of his career. This guy's made three hundred and fifty million dollars. It was Zach Rankie, who's a small player, and it kind of hit me like everyone's banking on May to have this long career make all this money. But it's just potential size. He got

rocked in the game. And then you see Granky, who when I googled three hundred and fifty million dollars in his career was incredible for a large percentage of it. And small guys, if they are special, can dominate now their floor. Like you know, if Bryce Young's gonna hit, he's gonna be really good, but it's much harder for him just to be. And this is where I think

people talk themselves out of it. If it doesn't go perfect, How does he just be like Jared Goth you know, or Alex Smith, because there aren't just Usually the small guy isn't just solid. Look at Kyler, he was either going to be really good or he's gonna stink. There's not just like slow and steady. So that's where I

think the debate on Bryce is legitimate. But if you do believe he's going to be special, and there's only a small percentage of those guys, doesn't even just because you were special in college does not translate to the pros. You know, we have a long history of guys who are great in college that can't play in the NFL. I tend to think he's going to be an incredible player, just because I heard Bucky Brooks and Daniel Jeremiah talking about this that we talk a lot about small guys

getting injured. Most quarterbacks in recent memory, they get hit, get hurt, you know, I mean, Trey Lance's big, Jimmy Garoppolo's bigger. That you get hit, you get hurt. With the size of these defensive linemen and linebackers coming into the game, so it's more about just protecting your quarterback. Herbert broke some ribs last year. Last year, so well, Stafford's falling apart mat He's thirty four years old, so

you Russell's breaking down. He's had knee surgery. You know, he's what Russell Wilson's thirty three, thirty four years old, So you know, I would take Bryce young. But I do understand the argument on the other side of the ledger on the small thing though, if you hit with a small that this guy can be And from the character stuff, you know, Kyler was questioned coming out by the people internally Chris Bryce's character just like CJ's is really I think these guys are very very well liked

from a character teammate football intelligence standpoint, well. And also Bryce was a rock star at high school at fifteen in LA and then he goes to Alabama and he's a rock star right out of the shoot. So like he's been on the spotlight forever. So I feel like CJ. Strou's personalities a little more, at least I've heard he's a great has great leadership qualities. But I feel like Bryce Young as a number one pick would be unaffected completely. Yeah.

Just he was the best high school I mean he was. I can remember talking to somebody when he was a sophomore on the USC staff and they're like, oh, yeah, it ball comes out different. Then he goes to you know, his just sort of spatial awareness, pocket awareness, it's way beyond. I talked to Frank Reich Um I can't give away too much we talked about, but he asked me about

some quarterback stuff and I said, listen, I saw. I saw a lot of Bryson High School, a lot of tape, and I'm like, coach, he just sees the field different, Like his head is just all over the field. Whereas c J. Stroud Lancer line, his dad works in the NFL. Lance does a good job for NFL dot Com he said to c. J. Stroud as Jared Goff, sir. And by the way, that's not terrible. No, he's more athletic

than Jared two. But you know from you know, Belichick's coaching tree has been an utter disaster, and Josh remade his image and had been turning people down. He was gonna get a head coaching job, takes the Raider job within a year. Derek's out of there. Trades Darren Waller when he gets coming back from a wedding, that was

felt a little clunky. I don't know if you saw that story, you know, yes, you know, so it's just now Darren, if you google his stats the last couple of years, he hasn't exactly been George Kittle or Travis Kelsey. But still it was a little clunky the way that thing went down. Now he Jimmy's an impressive guy, had a lot of success when his team has been well run. Patriots forty nine Ers comes to the Raiders dysfunction as part of their brand. Now he's got Waller's no longer there.

Their offensive line got some question marks. I think there is just tangible pressure on Josh now of like you're going all in with Jimmy and even if they draft a quarterback, it's going to end up being a Will Levis or a Malik you know that's going to take some time, or not Malik, but Anthony Richardson. Like they're gonna be ready to play. I don't see how the Raiders. Now Sean Payton's with the Broncos, they're gonna be much more competitive. We know the charges are good with the

chiefs of the champs. I don't know, man, I do I get why Jimmy, you got to take thirty five million dollars guaranteed, But I don't know if I see that one going. Well, Well, they're you know, sometimes some people are built to be vice presidents. Al Gore was never going to be president, right, not dynamic enough, not just not. It's very possible. Josh McDaniels is just one

of the great offensive coordinators. I mean, if Sark doesn't get it turned around at Texas, he's a remarkable offensive coordinator. He may not be a head coach. When every time I watch Sark's teams, I'm always left with he recruits well, the offenses are clever, excellent game planner. They're never quite buttoned up they make up. Their details are always a little and I and I'm not saying this is true, but is it possible Josh McDaniels is just an all

time great coordinator. There's nothing wrong with that. It pays three four million dollars in the NFL, you know. Yeah, so I think their offensive talent's really good. But I think, you know, how when when when Brady left the Bucks, I think the divorce has been more lobsided than we thought. Brady's success in Tampa juxtaposed against Bill's struggles in New England. Um,

so Josh McDaniels leaves New England, the offense falls apart. Yeah, you're like, wow, this one feels like Josh and Belichick were perfect together and and maybe they're just not great apart. It's very possible that Bill. I've seen this my whole life, like like some coaches really need a strong on coordinator on one side of the ball. They just do. I mean, Saban has hit a lot of home runs at OC

a lot. Nick knows what he doesn't know, And it's just possible that Josh and Bill they're just perfect, just perfect. And you know, for the record, let's admit this. Josh and Bill got Mac Jones to the playoffs, didn't they They were pretty good two years ago. I mean they went ten and seven and they probably could have easily had eleven wins. I mean really competitive that year. Yeah, it's very and this is not a knock on Josh, but it's like, you know, we talk about the Brady,

we talk about the Brady leaving Bill. You know, if Josh doesn't leave. I think New England is kind of in that Super Bowl eighteen bubble because I think Mac is kind of capable with Bill's brilliance, and I think Josh McDaniels does a really good job elevating an offense. But I'm like you, I some of his decisions. He's a little cold, which works in New England. But I remember when he was in Denver and like everybody's like, dude,

Tebow's not a first round quarterback. I mean I can remember talking to people inside the Broncos who are like, dude, he's our fourth best quarterback in camp. He's not even second or thirties fourth. But you know, Josh is very strong headed, So I'm not sure he's a head coach. We'll see. I'm not sure he is. I got a big picture of sports. Take I was, I wanted to spring training game yesterday. I went to one a couple

of weeks ago. It's packed. I mean it's just there's thirteen fourteen thousand people at these games, young old, the World Baseball Classic. I heard you talking about the ratings. I mean three four million people are watching on Fox Sports one. This isn't big Fox, so they're doing bigger numbers in the NBA. Is baseball not dead because it's sure seems kind of popular to me. Well, i mean, look at what hockey got for you know, broadcast contracts

and nobody watches it. So baseball's ingrained in our society. It's you know, it's our sport. It is. It runs alone in the summer, it runs alone, and it's easy. Yeah. I mean you don't have to love baseball to like go into a baseball game with friends if you're young. The other thing that I would say about baseball is because of the volume, all these networks now need they need content. Well, it's it's the sport of content. So it's like when people bag on the NBA, if it

was on the open market, you'd have multiple bidders. You need content. And so I kind of look at baseball as much shit as Rob manfred gets. I sat on a plane next to a general man, a double a general manager, flying from Atlanta to LA and the Richmond, Virginia area, and he said, we've had this clock for two years. Game flies by and it says it makes a tangible difference at a park. You're out of there in two forty three almost every night. And my thing

is baseball's fun. It can get really slow. Yeah, you take that out. And and by the way, the defensive shift, more runners, more stealing. So John Wi, every sport changes. Football has been the best at changing quickly. But like there's no there's no perfect sport. This shit all changes. Like baseball was just getting too slow, had too few base runners. Tweak it, and my guess is the numbers will be up. You think part of Roger Goodell, who

just got another contract extension. Media hates him, but you know the NFL is taking off like a rocket ship for the last fifteen years has benefited you. See Adam Silver, I mean John Morant, he's got Buddy's pointing a gun at a pacer employee. He's doing all that he got, I mean he barely got his wrist slapped. I mean the Adam Silver experiment. You talking about a number two might have been a great vice president. I don't know if he's a great president. You know, David Stern was

just a much more of a of a foe. I felt for the NFL in terms of just running his business. And it feels like the NFL is separated because the NBA in the NFL. The overlap right October, November, December, January, and it's even now in March with free agencies really big for the NFL and then the draft in April. It feels like Roger's success he's benefited a lot from Adam Silver. Just I don't know. I think he's a pretty terrible commissioner. Well. I think basketball's always been linked

to sort of it's it's a cultural sport. It's culturally significant, style, aesthetics, race discussions. Goodell doesn't have to deal with some of that. It's about winning and losing. It's also the sport we bet and now legalize gambling. Last year you saw it fourth quarter TV ratings up. People don't abandon blowout games anymore. So I think football in is a little easier to

manage than basketball, and that's I love the NBA. But um, you know there there, it doesn't bother me, but it's it's it's it's got a cultural significance and its athletes have always been outspoken and they should be if they believe strongly in something. You know, I love Lebron, who's much more willing to talk than a tire or a Michael Jordan, and I love him for that. But um, I think the NBA has always had its challenges. When David Stern took it over, there was a big drug problem,

big cocaine problem, teams teetering on bankruptcy. Stern had the deal and Adam Silver was some really bad ownership situations. You've also had, you know, the COVID challenge. I thought Silver nailed. I still can't believe. I watched games insided with digital fans. I couldn't believe they pulled that self off. So there, I think there's been some definite wins for

Adam Silver. You know what I also thinkum, because even back during the Spencer Haywood days was when I was a kid, John, It's always been a players run league forever. So when people say, oh, players having too much power they did in the seventies eighties. When you only have five starters on the floor, one or two guys. Literally, it's like international soccer Ronaldo Messi. They get what they want,

they want to coach fire, they get them fired. I think I think with the NBA, it's still really popular, but I think part of the analytics of that sport is and it's really funneling, is that there's a lot of evidence these guys should be planned about sixty games, should never play back to back. I mean, these guys have unique six foot nine seven feet, it's harder to travel, and I think inside the league, I've talked to an agent, I've talked to scouts, there's real evidence now, like Anthony

Davis is pain free. It's like, dude, you're not planned tonight. And I think I think it's it's hard for fans to digest that you go and pay I mean the other or nine. You know, there's the Laker game. It's like Lebron's out and ads out and this stars out. It's like, well it was I think it was the Suns played somebody and I'm like, well, everybody's out. But the Warriors played the Sixers and the Stars are playing outside of Wiggins, and I'm in So I think there's

an analytic thing. Analytic they're not always good, John Baseball analytics fewer base runners, home strikeouts now don't matter. Basketball analytics in terms of player health are signifying some real truths. Eighty two games is just not good for players. It's not. And so I think I think they're in a tough transition point with some of that stuff. There was a little David Stern always would tell people privately, nobody watches us until the playoffs anyway, even in the Jordan days,

the idea that we just watched the regular season. No we didn't, No, we really didn't. And now you've got a world where there's a zillion games on every there's no special So I think the NBA will be fine, But I do think it is. It's a little harder because players are so powerful. It is a harder sport to be a commissioner of. Do you think the NCAA tournament whose ratings were up, Let's face it, we've probably never watched less regular season college basketball. We don't know

the players, right. Do you think that's directly more for gambling? Yes, because I heard you talking about passion. It is pretty It's just a good television product. Even if you're not gambling. Then if you are gambling, it's hard to take your eyes off it. So March Madness ratings way up, NFL way up. The two things we bet in America our March Badness and the NFL. We bet college football, not to the level of March. You go ask a sports book operator three weeks in March and the NFL, that's

what America bets. In England they bet the the you know z pl and so yeah, I think that's it. Anything we bet is by the way, World Cup. World Cup had great enough verse even though the times, I mean there were games on that like two in the morning. Why Soccer is another sport that is heavily bad. So I think it's the rollout continues. Football, March Madness, Soccer are going to be the big winners and all this sports gambling rollout. So San Diego State FAU one of

those two going to win the national championship. What a story that would be. I think what Yukon did to Gonzaga, nobody's done that to Gonzaga. I think they're going to roll through it. I think Yukon se bestie. Yea. They look they looked pretty. They looked pretty. Damn good. They killed Gonzaga. That wasn't asking. We'll Colin have a good week. Drafts not too far away. Enjoy the fun four talk soon, all right, buddy the Volume. Make sure to check out

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